What's the best way to tune arrows to a bow?

[Bldtrailer]

Ok I'm playing with Bare shaft tuning vs Paper tuning which        rid of the 1/2 inch high tear tryed nock up & down at 6 ft from paper)really want to keep the 300 tips should I start cutting down the shafts? Can brace hight change help or B-50 string?

[Manitoba Stickflinger]

I stopped paper tuning a couple years back. When I did paper tune, I didn't mind a bit nock high!

Bare shaft tuning has worked well for me. I've found starting with a long arrow and various tip weights is the way to go. Don't cut until you have determined that the arrow is too weak for your goal arrow/tip weight combo. Finding an arrow that will fly nice is easy....finding the right arrow/tip weight with the right FOC, and having it perfectly tuned is the tricky part. Good luck...Ryan

[Steertalker]

Bldtrailer,

Without seeing you shoot it's a bit hard to determine just exactly what is going on.  Assuming your form is good then you need to decide if you want to stay with the 300 gr points or go down in weight.  The 250 gr points seem to right.  However, with the 300 gr points the easiest thing to do in my mind is to start gradually trimming your arrow shaft down 1/4 inch at time.  Paper tuning is fine.....if you have very good form.  If not....you may get a little frustrated because things like the nock high indication could be cause by you rather than the exact tuning.  

Again...assuming you can shoot....bare shaft tune and incrementally work your way away from the target.  I promise you....if you can shoot bare shafts in line with your POA out to 40 plus yards.....your arrows are tuned.  If you have good form.....a well tuned bare shaft will shoot just like a fletched shaft.  By that I mean no porpoising or fishtailing.

I bare shaft tune all the way out to 50 yards.  Once I'm pleased with that then I fletch them up and go to BH's to final tune.  You can't go wrong doing it that way.

One other thing....on the nock high business....try orienting the fletch different ways.  I shoot with my fletch at 12 o'clock, 4 o'clock and 8 o'clock.  Also try a different size fletch.  A well tuned arrow doesn't require much steerage even with BH's.  My hunting arrows have 318 grs up front (200 grain Grizzly El Grande and steel BH adapter) and either 3 X 2 1/2" or 3" feathers on the back end.

Hope this helps,

Brett

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I paper tune and flight tune. If I have the space I'll take a bareshaft add the point weight I WANT (at the time I started it was 125. Now it's 160grn) and see how they fly out to 75 100 yards. I'm looking to see how soon it stops fishtailing. I slowly cut them down til it stops.

I then add feathers and paper tune, But I don't hold the bow straight up/down. I hold it like I shoot every day. That way when I get bullet holes, I know it's tuned right.

Now My way is no better then any other way and the same can be said about the other ways to tune. It's more of what works best for You. Now I started by paper tuning right off the bat. I tried bareshaft, but I could never get it to work for me like paper would. Just some thing to think about.

[Gentry]

I was making the mistake of canting my bow while bare shafting just last week. a week arrow will show nock high if you are canting your bow and are right handed. make sure that you are stright up and down while bare shafting.

[JamesKerr]

I use O.L. Acock's method of bare shaft tuning and it works perfect for me.

[Ragnarok Forge]

I second the OL Adcock method.  Paper tuning is a good start.  The problem is that it is only good at that one distance.  Try it at 15 yards and you can get different results.  The arrow is still oscillating quite a bit at the distance your using.

[Armand]

I use O.L.Adcock's method of bare shaft tuning and it works perfect for me.

X2

I had the advantage of working at a bow shop and was able to play with this method in the indoor range to get perfect arrow flight and have used this as my primary tuning method, so if you want to read up on this go to O.L.Adcock website and i think you will enjoy the reading and the method works well

[PA Bones]

I have had excellent results by bare shaft tuning my arrows to my bows.  Another good reference for bare shaft tuning is on Bob Morrison's website at  http://www.morrisonarchery.com/index/tuning/tuning.html

[Bldtrailer]

Thanks, I tune holding the bow strieght up and down ,but I shoot canted like Stacy Groscup.  And worst of all I'm a snap shooter. so Form may be an issue. With that said the arrows seemed to group fletched but past 10yrds the bare shaft would go way right and low.(all my other bows(52-55lbs) With  these arrows shoot dead on fletched with bare to 20yrds)this bow seems faster.

[Ragnarok Forge]

That is definately indicating a weak shaft.   Shorter arrows, a stiffer spine, different thickness side plate, or lighter points can all correct the issue.

[yeager]

I used to bareshaft tune, but mostly now use Stu's Dynamic Spine calculator.  The results I've gotten have been right-on.  Just finished another dozen of Easton Axix FMJ 500's and they fly great!